Posted by Sherman in Idaho [72.47.153.28] on Wednesday, August 13, 2014 at 18:21:10 :
In Reply to: Re: No safety equipment posted by gmharris [72.219.148.98] on Wednesday, August 13, 2014 at 15:51:13 :
I used to have a friend who hired on as a welder at Weyerhaeuser around 1940. He had plenty of stories of gruesome industrial accidents -- a man going through the hog, a number of man being asphyxiated in an "empty" digester, etc -- but the interesting thing was that the leadburners (men who welded lead pipes and tanks using an acetylene torch) were separate from the regular welders. They were paid almost twice as much, and it was expected that lead poisoning would render them unfit for work within 10 years. Nobody forced them to take the work, but there were apparently plenty of men who would rather have double pay today than a healthy retirement later. Also apparently nobody even considered the idea of respirators, fume hoods, or even a strong fan.
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